New comment guidelines for school board

People making public comments at a Shelton School Board meeting will no longer be verbally warned specifically not to defame anyone or to illegally invade someone’s privacy.

A cover letter for the meeting agenda still cautions speakers not to be “libelous or slanderous under a legal standard.”

The Shelton School Board on March 11 voted unanimously to change the language regarding public comments at the meeting, which are read aloud by Board Chair Matt Welander before speakers have three minutes to comment.

The following sentence was eliminated: “The board cautions all speakers that it is possible that your statements could violate the rights of others under various laws, including laws prohibiting privacy and laws prohibiting defamation. If you are unsure of the legal effect of your remarks, you should seek independent legal advice.”

The sentence that was added is, “The board requests all speakers to use civil and appropriate comments and refrain from disrupting the business of the board.”

The phrase “the board invites community members to make public comments” was also changed to “the board welcomes community members to make public comments.” The guidelines conclude with “We ask that you help us model for our students what a respectful and inclusive community looks and sounds like.”

The wording had been changed at the beginning of this school year.

During public comments at the March 11 meeting, Shelton resident Andrew Wilford said he supports the changes.

“I know other people have spoken out against it in the past, the changes that occurred at the beginning of the school year and I was one who also did not agree with the language change,” he said. “I think it would be more simple to go back to the language we had, but the proposal seems adequate to me. What I don’t see in the proposal though, is anything addressing the first page … Something else I think here that needs to be pointed out it seems really out of place, is the first bullet point, that states the chair will interrupt you when you’re making a comment of libelous or slanderous under a legal standard. Now that’s quite a duty for the chairman to hold. Last I knew, he wasn’t a lawyer or a judge or a law professor or anything like that, so that seems a little heady for him to take on.”

Shelton resident Dean Jewett said he also did not like the wording on slander and privacy and declined to give his address when asked.

Instead, he said he is homeless.

“You try to put some scare tactics into people so they can’t say what they want to say?” he asked. “You know what that does to me? To me that’s a challenge and I accept that challenge every day. It will not dissuade me or critique me in what I want to say. You wanna bring a lawsuit, bring it on.”

Bob Rogers tried to add his comments at the meeting but was inaudible because he said he was at a remote location in central Oregon. He sent his comments to the board for the record.

“Although you voted to use the new public comment language on the agenda, apparently the board is still planning to use the new (as of a couple months ago) cover sheet. I want to thank Director Knudsen for questioning that after a public commentor asked about some of the language contained on the cover sheet. I again want to stress the limits you have on suppressing free speech in the setting of a limited public forum.”

Rogers attached two links he said display the limitations required of the speakers, including requiring them to identify themselves or give an address.

“In addition, you might ask the district’s lawyer whether stating the chair will control libelous or slanderous speech opens the district up to be a responsible party if, in fact, legal action is ever taken against a speaker,” he wrote.